LEGACY
by Keridwen
Summary: A suspense story of girl named Shanley- When times change in the federation how does one learn to adapt and overcome - TOS - Please R&R - the plea goes out to readers - I will not continue without reviews!!!!!!
1. Chapter One: My Story: How it all Began

Title :Legacy  
  
Author: Keridwen  
  
Disclaimer: this should be self explanatory, if not - put it in a review - I will answer in one of my next few posts.  
  
  
  
  
  
Chapter One: My Story: How it all Began  
  
  
  
It is here by mandated that the role of Captain aboard any Starfleet class vessel, military or otherwise, shall be altered to conform to the needs of an ever-changing United Federation of Planets. Therefore, the role of starship Captain shall be as follows:  
  
1 Diplomatic envoy wherever stationed.  
  
2 Official federation voice in said area.  
  
3 Shall maintain the right to commence with police action on said planet(s).  
  
4 Shall be regarded with the honors of a Federation Ambassador.  
  
  
  
Due to the above changes, the role of the Chief Engineer shall subsequently be altered to fit the needs of an ever-changing Federation.  
  
1 The Chief Engineer shall be in charge of all shipboard operations.  
  
2 He/She/It shall make all emergency and tactical decisions regarding the safety of the ship and crew.  
  
3He/She/It will receive orders and assignments and will brief the appropriate departments on actions to take.  
  
  
  
Having passed this resolution by a majority vote in the council, said mandate shall be instated on stardate..........  
  
Nargris Hsresit President Ntv. Zeon 9  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
This was the resolution that changed my life forever.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Earth, Mars, Vulcan, Centaurus, Janus, Vega, Antares, Altair, Betazed, Diaspor and all the planets of Deneb immediately retaliated, but they could do very little. For the moment the minority was running the united Federation of Planets. The more militant faction of the federation, Quonos, Reigil, Andor, Teller, Vashath, Colomn, and Zeon held the floor over the originating twenty members. Of course the newest planets were not going to vote against the Klingons and the Andorians although there was supposedly great peace within the planets of the Federation: especially the Andorians who had been secretly running a chain of well trained intergalactic hit men.  
  
  
  
So the vote passed.  
  
  
  
In the end, what was a first year academy cadet, sick of politics, and wiped out from exams going to do? Transfer out of command school was not the first thought that came to my head, but it was the plan that succeeded in the end.  
  
I realized, at about that time, that I was never going to be able to fulfill my greatest dream. I took that dream and I mushed it down deep inside my head. Deep, Deep, Deep into the recesses of my brain, so far deep that a Vulcan would have a hard job prying it back out.  
  
  
  
I entered engineering school.  
  
  
  
Engineering had been my second great passion, and soon it became my first as I shuffled through old and new manuals. The semester we went over the warp drive, the very heart of a starship, I had to take sleeping pills just to let my body rest for a few hours. Kate, my best friend, was going through the Starfleet medical program at the time, and had to come and tuck me in at night - although I don't know where she found the time to do so - to make sure I wasn't going to die of fatigue. "I've never heard of it Liz," she would say, "The average person today usually doesn't die from lack of sleep, but you have a nack for having to be the first at everything, so I am not taking any chances."  
  
To this I would mutter a reply, and doze off for a few hours of fitful dreams of warp drive repair. I wanted to get in there, feel the ship move under my feet. Feel her come alive for the first time and work the power out of her until she reached warp 9.9 and flew forever.  
  
One morning after one such restless night, I ended up dozing through the alarm I pulled myself to the fresher a full twenty minutes late for my final simulation run before graduation. This was one class I, Shanley Elizabeth Kirk, did not want to miss... 


	2. Chapter Two: My Story: The Test

Title: LEGACY  
  
Author: KERIDWEN  
  
Disclaimer: I know, I am quick tav: here is the rest of the juicy stuff - anybody else -fuzzy on what is going on? REVIEW REVIEW REVIWE!!!!!  
  
  
  
  
  
Chapter Two: My Story: The Test  
  
  
  
"Run Liz Run," cried the voice of Catalina Francis M'Benga, "They are going to start without us and we will FAIL!!!!!!!"  
  
The woman running next to her gave her a sour look.  
  
"Look Bones, you did not have to wait for me."  
  
  
  
"Are you kidding, miss the chance to walk into the Kobiashy Maru engineering final scenario with Cadet Shanley E Kirk, daughter of."  
  
"Can it Bones! That shit is the whole reason why I transferred to engineering in the first place." Liz averted her eyes from her friends as she lied.  
  
"That is a lie, Liz and you know it."  
  
"Well if you know so much, why are we still late. Come on!"  
  
The two women pounded their way across the courtyard.  
  
  
  
  
  
"Well now." Cam the booming voice of admiral Hiro Tetsari, "Since every one is finally present, we may begin the Kobiashy Maru scenario. Engineers take your posts. Chief engineer for this round will be Shanley Kirk. Medical trainee in charge will be Catalina M'Benga  
  
Supervisors will be placed at various posts, although during the scenario they will be under your command.  
  
Liz turned to Kate and whispered. "So tell me again, Bones, why DID they let Earth women into Starfleet in the first place?"  
  
"To whoop on the Borg, to warp through the universe and. both women whispered the last part together and smacked their wrists together in a salute. "To keep the MEN in line!"  
  
"Cadets," came the voice of the Admiral as the giant bay doors closed, "You are now on your own. You are disabled outside of federation territory, there are three Romulan vessels within sensor range, and there is also a decompression problem in one of your sections. What do you do? Good Luck."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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RED ALERT! RED ALERT! RED ALERT! RED ALERT! RED ALERT! RED ALERT! Overload of the warp core imminent. RED ALERT! RED ALERT!  
  
  
  
Kate dispatched the med teams to all different ends of engineering. From the "death" count, however, she realized that her medics were not getting there fast enough. "Damn!" she cried, "Unit three get out of there, attend to sections seven through twelve!"  
  
A red shirt was running by. Kate caught him on the shoulder. "What is our status crewman?"  
  
  
  
"STATUS!" cried the cadet, his eyes were wide and from what Kate could tell, he was far-gone into shock. "We are not going to HAVE A STATUS in a few minutes mam! The Decompression in section twelve is critical and there is no one up there to take care of it in time. We are going to blow at any second!"  
  
Kate couldn't believe it; they were almost to federation territory where an escort was waiting for them. This scenario had lasted thirty minutes already; they couldn't fail now, not so close to the end!  
  
"Cadet! Who is left up in that section? Who can reach those circuits in time?"  
  
"Nobody but the Chief mam!"  
  
"Don't you mam me," Kate was getting really tired of hearing that. She was only twenty-three for St. Peters Sake! "It is Doctor to you." She shook him for good measure. "Liz is up there, that is not just nobody!!!"  
  
Kate craned her head to see the lone figure on the third engineering level. "Come on Liz, she thought. Even thought you hate him.we need a James T Kirk type of miracle for this one."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The smoke was pouring from everywhere. Liz coughed and wiped her eyes; it was becoming impossible to see. All though she did not know for sure, she suspected that she was the only one left on the third level.  
  
RED ALERT! RED ALERT!  
  
Liz was going to get very sick of that siren before this was all over. She glanced at the display board. There was a problem with that many flashing lights on her board, how could there not be a problem.  
  
Problems were what scenarios were all about after all. Problems with instruments and couplings and dead locks. Liz wiped her eyes again and took a deep breath. She was NOT going to spaz out now! The decompression board had to be reached and the hull had to be repressurized. She saw the sequence of buttons and instructions flash through her brain. That wasn't the problem.  
  
She looked across the chasm that separated level three A from level three B. It was a two-story drop.  
  
Liz allowed herself a few nanoseconds of quick thinking. If she ran the sequence program she had come up with the night before, the computer would allow her to key in any command from any consol. It was not feasible in a real starship, but for the scenario, it would work.  
  
NO!  
  
She rejected that idea with out another thought. Although the program was made totally from her own ideas, everyone else would think of the story that made the Kobiashy Maru famous. The time when James T Kirk had reprogrammed the scenario to make it possible to rescue the ship would never be forgotten.  
  
Liz would not have her own work branded for a copycat ploy.  
  
Yet, How was she going to get out of this?  
  
  
  
  
  
(00)(00)(00)(00)(00)(00)(00)(00)  
  
  
  
  
  
Major explosions came from the third level, and for a moment Kate was afraid for her friends safety. Simulators were designed to shake cadets up a bit, but were not supposed to kill people.  
  
  
  
Then she caught sight of Liz again. "Oh good, thought Kate, she is all."  
  
The thought was actually cut off in her mind as she saw her friend climb up onto the guardrail that separated the two levels by a forty-foot chasm.  
  
"What the..... said Kate in confusion. All on the lower level, medics and Cadets alike were pointing and staring.  
  
  
  
  
  
Then Liz jumped.  
  
  
  
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Kate clutched her medkit as her heart skipped a beat.  
  
  
  
Then Liz caught a hold of a connection cable hanging from the ceiling and swung across the gap.  
  
"Liz. Don't!!!"  
  
The rope was not long enough to make it.  
  
  
  
  
  
Liz reached the end of her swing and, just when the crowd thought she was going to fall, she reached under her jacket.  
  
  
  
And pulled out a long flat object  
  
And placed it under her feet  
  
And floated smoothly, defying gravity itself, to the other side.  
  
  
  
"An anti grav board." Kate thought in amazement and disgust. "She floated across, putting herself in danger, like a neo Tony Hawk, on and ANTI GRAVIT BOARD!!!!!!"  
  
  
  
Three seconds later the siren had turned off and a voice came through the smoke.  
  
"Attention Starship Columbia. This is the Intrepid. You have now reached federation space; escort will now close in to protect you. Columbia, Welcome home!"  
  
  
  
The cheer that filled the room was deafening. Kate ran to the middle of the crowd where Liz was climbing down to the first level, and being crushed by a sea of Cadets, grateful that they had not failed. Kate rushed up and hugged her friend and Shouted. "Liz, You magnificent IDIOT you! You did IT!" And in the next breath she said under her breath. "My God! You could have been killed. It was just a test! Why did you risk your neck like that?"  
  
Liz turned her bright hazel eyes on Kate. They were merry and exhausted at the same time. Moreover, they spoke volumes to the person who put her arm around her for comfort and support.  
  
  
  
"You know me, Bones," she said with a bright cocky smile, "I don't like to loose!" 


End file.
